Vietnam is considering to take part in a project on self-certification of goods origin by enterprises to enjoy preferential tariffs under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), said deputy director general of the MOIT’s Multilateral Trade Policy Department Le Trieu Dung.

At a seminar on rules of origin for goods held by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City in late last month, Dung added that ASEAN members were discussing and implementing two self-certification of origin pilot projects.

The first project has been carried out for about two years with the participation of hundreds of trade and production enterprises from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The second one, which was started in the beginning of this year, is expected to enable enterprises of participating nations, namely Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines, to self-certify the origin of their products.

By 2015, this common mechanism will be implemented in all 10 ASEAN member countries. Vietnam plans to participate in the second project as soon as a regulation is issued to identify and certify businesses permitted to self-certify the origin of their goods.

The functional agencies’ grant of certificates of origin for products of businesses is now shifting to the mode whereby importers and manufacturers take the initiative in self-certifying the origin of their products, especially under agreements to which the United States of America is a contracting party.

According to JETRO representative Susumu Sato, agreements to which Vietnam is a contracting party such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement and the Vietnam-EU Trade Agreement are likely to permit licensed exporters to apply the self-certification mechanism. Licensed exporters may declare the origin of their goods according to prescribed forms or in commercial invoices.

All businesses will be permitted to self-declare the origin of goods in shipments worth less than a prescribed level and violators will be sanctioned.-